Srinivas Rao has mastered the art of conducting blogger interviews. On his wildly popular podcast, Blogcast FM, Srini goes behind the scenes to give us an in-depth look into the success stories of some the most compelling individuals online today.
Here's Srini's Bio:
BLOGCAST FM founder/host Srinivas Rao has been a 2-time speaker at Blogworld Expo and was listed on Problogger’s annual list of 40 Bloggers to Watch in 2011. He’s a regular contributor to the Adage 150 blog, {GROW} and his work has been featured on Social Mouths, Write to Done, Dumb Little Man, Twitip, Kikolani, and many other social media and personal development blogs. Srinivas has interviewed nearly 300 people since starting BLOGCAST FM and continues to have the best and brightest guests from the online business industry.
My Interview with Srini Rao
Q. Your podcast is an interview style format and in the past you’ve covered some extremely popular personalities from the online world. If you could pick only one or two interviews that you would really want people to listen to so they can get a taste of your show, which ones would you recommend?
That’s a really tough question since there have been so many. But there are certain ones that really stand out in my mind. I’d say check out these:
- How Erika Lyremark is Whipping Businesses Into Shape
- How Danielle Laporte is Setting the World on Fire
Q. In terms of social networking, what social networks do you find effective when it comes to promoting your blog and your show? Where are you spending most of your time on social media these days and why?
My main three are Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. I spend most of my time on Twitter because I’m continually on the lookout for interesting content creators. I find that Facebook is more spectators than it is creators. Oddly enough for our BlogcastFM listener base Google+ is where we have the most engagement. I think the noise on Facebook is really hard to compete with.
Q. Now let’s focus on blogging, talk to us about your blogs and what people can expect when they visit the blogs.
Well as you know, I host a show called BlogcastFM, where you’ll find close to 300 interviews with bloggers, authors, entrepreneurs and other people who are doing amazing things in the world. The advice they offer is always actionable, insightful, and useful. In many ways I think the show is evolving beyond just being about blogging. It’s really starting to turn into a show about what makes people successsful.
My other blog is The Skool of Life, where I write about the things we should have learned in school but never did. I come from a long line of academics. My dad’s a professor and everybody else in our family has advanced degrees. I followed that path and it didn’t lead where I thought it would. I like to say in school I got a degree, in life I’m getting an education.
Q. Guest posting is another area of blogging that I’d like to talk about. You’ve guest posted on quite a few blogs, what are some of them and tell us how you landed guest posts on those popular blogs. Did you get in touch with the blog owner or did they reach out to you. How did that work?
I was fairly proactive in this process. But where I started was with smaller and newer blogs. I also invited people to guest post on my blog in order to build a relationship with them. While it makes sense to get traffic from bigger blogs, I recommend starting with people at your same level. It’s a better way to polish and refine your work before putting it in front of a large audience .
Q. Srini, I would love to get a sponsor for my podcast so give us some tips on getting show sponsors, where can I find potential sponsors?
The process of scouting sponsors is not an easy one. I think David Siteman Garland really said it best when he said “do 50 episodes before you even think about it.” WE did about 200. The longer you wait to get a sponsor, the more leverage you have because you’ll have a body of work and an audience. If a sponsor signs on too early and you grow it’s going to be hard to raise your prices.
Q. What are some of your favorite podcasts that you like to listen to and what blogs do you visit regularly and why?
Blogs:
- The Middle Finger Project because Ashley has one of the most unique voices online
- AJ Leon’s, Pursuit of Everything blog because he’s an amazing and inspiring writer
Podcasts:
The Tropical MBA because Dan and Ian are useful and entertaining
Q. Let’s move on and talk about your latest project. I’d love to talk to you about your brand new book, what’s the name of the book and how did you and your partner David come up with the title? Also, give us some insights into how did you decided on the focus of the book and how long that process took.
We wanted to attempt a project based on our interviews but we knew simply compiling a bunch of interviews wouldn’t fly. Part of what drove the decision to focus on this was that Amazon is really keyword driven. We also knew that getting a book deal is something every blogger has thought about at one time or another.
We ran the idea by a few people and the book was born.
As far as the process we went through quite a bit of editing. We had our friend Kristina Holmes who is a literary agent, write the foreword for the book. Then we came up with a marketing plan. We treated it just as if we we were working with a publisher.
Q. What can people expect from the book and what are the big take-aways for anyone who reads it?
Tactical insights into what goes into the publishing process from people who have done it.
Q. Can you give us some advice on some important lessons you learned while writing this book? If we wanted to get started writing a book today, what’s the biggest pitfall that you think people should avoid?
Start the marketing plan in conjunction with the book. Create a buzz team of sorts. I think the thing I would have done differently was picked 10-12 people to really help us blow it out rather than try to hit so many at once.
Q. Srini, in closing, tell us what’s next for you? Now that the book has launched what’s the next big thing you’re going to be working on?
We’ll be expanding with some new properties. 500 Business Books is the first of those. That’s all I can tell you for now :).
My thanks to Srini Rao for this awesome interview, please tell us what you think in the comments below.